Hospital Opens Door To Hmong Shamans

December 6, 2009|McClatchy Newspapers

FRESNO, Calif. — Staff at most hospitals would be baffled by an instruction like this on a bedside chart: to prepare patient for surgery, provide 15 minutes of soft chanting and tie a red string around the neck.

It's different at Mercy Medical Center in Merced, Calif. There, nurses know they must call a shaman.

Mercy is the nation's first hospital with a formal policy for Hmong shamans, allowing the traditional healers, working alongside doctors, to help patients recover.

Hospitals around the country are paying attention as they seek to accommodate cultural beliefs of diverse patient populations.

For those with traditional beliefs, calling on a spiritual healer is as important to good health as making an appointment with a doctor. They may go without care if they can't have a shaman nearby, sometimes with devastating consequences.

Unlike most religious rites performed by mainstream clergy, which provide a sense of comfort, shaman ceremonies go further: They are intended to heal.

Traditionally, the Hmong, who originally came from southeast Asia, believe a soul can become lost or captured by spirits. The spirits can affect the person's health and well-being, and until the soul is restored, believers say, the physical body won't heal. The shaman, in a trance, negotiates with spirits for the return of the soul.

Mercy's policy lists nine healing ceremonies that shamans are allowed to perform. Most involve soft chanting to promote healing, strengthen the body, keep the body safe or call the soul back to the body.

Shamans can tie strings around a neck and wrist. A red string around the neck helps in healing, and a white string around a wrist maintains a soul during hospitalization.

There are more than 55,000 Hmong between Sacramento and Bakersfield; about 7,000 live in Merced County.

All told, 89 shamans received Partners in Healing certificates. They were given special badges identifying them as graduates of the program. They wear them in the hospital.

Among the graduates is Fai Pha Chang. A short, sturdy-built man who farms vegetables in Merced, Chang, 65, fought on behalf of the United States in its secret war in Laos. He came to Merced four years ago from Thailand.

Before the classes, Chang, 65, had reservations about surgery being a safe procedure. A tour of an operating room at Mercy eased his mind.

"It is a place with safe tools, a safe place to keep the patient," he said.